Alcan case study: parts analysis and applications management

Alcan Case Study

Alcan comes second in the production of aluminum which is a primary resource. It is a corporation that is leading in terms of technology and is the highest manufacturer of aluminum products and also the best distributor. The organization is one of the largest organizations in business, with more than 80,000 employees worldwide in more than 50 countries in different regions. The company is a multicultural, dynamic and multi-lingual in nature hence serving people of diverse origins. The headquarters of Alcan Corporation is located in Canada (Montreal) and is traded in many stock exchanges in different cities including London, New York and Paris. The company has been known with different names ever since its conceptualization in 1902, when it was known as Northern Aluminum Company.

In 1925, the name of the company changed to Aluminum Company of Canada, and later changed to Alcan Aluminum Limited in 1966. In 2001 it was known as Alcan Inc. And is currently retaining the name regardless of merging with Rio Tinto in 2007. However great the company sounds, there have been a couple of hiccups in the operations of the Company's Applications Management. The problems directly affect the IT department. The most common and noted issues include lack of personnel in the department, with a vacancy in position of director in the department of IT missing for over a year. There has also been an intention to cut on costs which has always hindered the corporate projects for decades. The company has also given provision for a vice president in the IT department who has lead to many reforms. His name is Robert Ouelette.

The current Alcan Application Management

Though the company currently adheres to the entire lifecycle of applications; indication of requirements, designing the application, building it then deploying it afterwards. The company ensures good operational strategies for its application although the processes of optimization. The procedures mentioned above are the prescribed measures for efficient management of applications (Office of Government Commerce, 2002). The Alcan Company currently practices a good culture, which focuses on the organization's commitment to produce good performance. Performance is inclusive of both services and production of consumable goods. A culture of any company, regardless of whether it is commercial in nature, or result-oriented, need so adopt a culture and ensure it assists in reaching its core objectives through the right communication styles. Being an IT centered company, the culture of the Alcan Company is actually in line with its business objectives, which include satisfying clients and ensuring employees are motivated, both using cash and non-cash rewards.

Alcan Corporation has been working towards the realization of its strategies. One of the strategies that the company is currently undertaking is insourcing, where employees are allocated different tasks and generally utilizing internal resources. The employees are allocated different tasks, including delivering an application system, revise the applications when need arises and also assist in the control of data centre operations. The company also outsources which is basically borrowing resources from the external world. This allows for a formal arrangement where part of an application development could be actualized by people who are not employed by Alcan. Outsourcing is an example of the advantages the company. Outsourced personnel are also called in for maintenance, supporting and operating different applications.

Alcan Corporation also involves its business in co-sourcing, which is a combination of both outsourcing and insourcing. In most instances, other external firms are involved in the development of applications for Alcan. Some companies dwell and act in the very premises of Alcan Company and assist mainly in operations and maintenance of applications. The company has also indulged in several partnerships, with the latest being in 2007. Essentially, companies come into partnerships so as to co-develop and operate applications. Partnerships have the advantages of leverage on critical expertise and opens up better market opportunities. Just like partnerships, Alcan has also practiced the aspect of merging and acquisition that happens when a company acquires another either by cash or equity (stocks). The pros and cons of these application management strategies will be discussed in the proceeding paragraphs (Office of Government Commerce, 2002).

The main advantages of the current system of application management are the capabilities of the organization. The company has direct control over the employees hence ensures they are well motivated and remunerated. The company also has a well established culture hence the applications management team has integrated familiar processes and policies. The company also specializes in marketing and also has the advantage of leveraged expertise and control. New services are easier to penetrate the market and there are also provisions of market expansions (Office Government Commerce, 2002).

However, the company also experiences its hard times. One of the disadvantages of Alcan application management is that it does not utilize fully the insourcing strategy, as there are many expertises within the company but they hardly get time to multi-task. There is also great dependency of the employees, even when certain tasks require expertise. Most of the projects during phases of application development are complicated and require outsourcing which is expensive. Merging and acquisitions also increase costs due to the required resource (finances). During mergers, also, there is a possibility that there might be conflict and clashing of organization cultures.

Alcan Corporation has adopted the best practices of management. These include management by objectives (MBO), the zero-based budget strategy and both the long-term and short timed processes of planning. The experience the company has had in the past has revealed that objectives have to be few for realization purposes. It is usually critical for the management to minimize the number of objectives in application development. However, with MBO, number of objectives is not limited to three or four in number. Statistics show that MBO has capabilities of attaining close to ten objectives due to its capabilities of efficiency. In Alcan, realization of both personal and organization goals is evaluated annually, with 50% being the attainment rate. MBO provides a framework where the prioritized goals are dealt with before embarking on the other objectives that need more time to implement. The evaluations of whether or not the objectives are urgent are done by managers in the IT department (Gentiles, 1984).

The zero-based budget strategy (ZBB) is the main process used in Alcan, especially for sales, administrative expenses and research planning. The process of ZBB clearly supports issues related to departmental, divisional and corporate objectives which are inclusive of tactics and fundamental strategies. Though the process is tiresome, it has high returns for companies that implement it. The process also enhances and allows for higher productions. Planning, on the other hand, is the most effective and crucial component that requires outmost efficiency. It is through planning that all other processes of the organization come up. It is all about what the organization has to do, the manner in which objectives are to be reached and the people who are obligated to perform certain duties. Planning acts as the engine of the company and Robert Ouelette emphasizes on planning in the proposal presented. Alcan has outsourced expertise strategy planners from consultant organizations. When the consultants come to the organization, the employees are advised to be keen enough to ensure they get the best practices of planning skills and techniques (Gentles, 1984).